


Mala Tempora Currunt

by midarana_shojo



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, F/M, coven - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 14:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19832011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midarana_shojo/pseuds/midarana_shojo
Summary: You are a witch, but only barely.  You lost your powers when you were only 11, and you've lived the subsequent 9 years without magic.  Resigned to living like a normal person, you decide to take a stroll through the cemetery on your way to the grocery store.  Little did you know that choice would drastically change your entire life.// I know the chapters are pretty light and fluffy right now, but there will be violence, major character death, and some INTENSE angst in later chapters.  Also, Y/N will end up with one of them, but I still haven't decided who yet. //





	Mala Tempora Currunt

**Author's Note:**

> HI guys! I was inspired by this set of moodboards/hc (https://cloudycrystalkpop.tumblr.com/post/175655065727/nct-teenage-coven)! Follow them, they're 10000x better than I am at writing and coming up with really cool ideas and concepts.

I had always known the world was more than what most people saw. I was born into a practising family, a matriarchy of beautiful, powerful women who were skilled at the art of magic. My mother had been powerful and well rounded, with abilities in nearly every type of magic. I had been just as powerful her even though I was a little girl. I was barely 8 years old and I was mastering magic it had taken my mother 30+ years to learn. I was her prodigy, her legacy and the entire family treated me like I was made of gold. My mother cared for me like I was an exotic pet, groomed and preened to be the future High Priestess of our coven. I’m still not sure if she ever really loved me as she should have, but I was babied and treated well. I was so young that I didn’t notice that. I got what I wanted, my mother’s attention, and that was what mattered.

I was 11 when she finally decided to dip her toe into the only type of magic she wasn’t experienced with, magic that involves communication with the fae. She had never mentioned or taught me how to work with them because she didn’t know how to use the magic herself. She feared the fae. I never knew why she was so afraid of them, but when she went missing I could at least understand. The day she went missing, I no longer had my magic. I was suddenly as powerless as a regular old person like the magic had been drained from me. 

I was so ashamed that I was normal that I couldn’t look anyone in the eyes anymore. I felt worthless; everything I had ever known was ripped out from underneath me. Every day that my powers were gone, my family began to hate me more and more. I wasn’t the leader of the pack anymore, just a worthless little runt. A blemish on my family tree.

With my powers suddenly gone, I fell from grace with my family and was left on my own. Even my own, non-magic father began to look down on me like I was dirt. The way I had been treated was now gone. No longer was I showered in attention and gifts.

I was lucky that my uncle came to my rescue and took me in. He wasn’t involved with the magic like the rest of my family, though he did possess a few small magical powers. He could do small charms and hexes, though he never used them on me. He was kind and he tried his best to raise me. I was a moody, damaged little 11-year-old girl but he did his best and for that, I will be forever grateful. It was a lot of work to take care of me, I know that now. I was a terrible little girl, angry and sulking. He worked with me for years, helping me heal from the wounds of my estranged family’s treatment. As I found myself moving on and growing up, he was with me. It took a lot of work, but I became adjusted to life with normal people and no magic. 

It took me years to start to put the pieces together and realize that I could only use my mother’s magic when we were in the same room. I didn’t exactly know how, but I had mirrored her magic. I tried with my uncle and I found that when I looked into his eyes, I could do the same little charms he could. It was the eye contact that made me able to do someone else’s magic, and I almost considered contacting my father and telling him. Part of me still craved their love, wanted their approval. I wanted to be just as powerful as my mother once was. 

My uncle suggested that it wouldn’t be a good idea. Now that I knew I could mirror other people’s magic, I always wondered if I could do it with people that weren’t blood-related. I tried to do it, but despite looking into the eyes of every single person I came across, I had never been able to mirror anyone else’s magic. 

So by the time I was 16, I had resigned to average life without magic. I had this new understanding of my powers. Now that I understood that I had magic, I knew that I’d probably just never be able to use it again. That took me a long time to come to terms with. It made me bitter and angry, though I tried my best to stamp down that self-hatred. I hated the fact that I could do magic, but I could only mooch off someone else’s magic.

When I turned 18, my uncle set me up to live by myself in the tiny apartment I currently did. I didn’t have to pay rent, just my utilities and stuff. I made enough money online writing articles for people too lazy to write their articles themselves. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. 

When I moved into my apartment the neighbours came over and introduced themselves, an older couple of women who came bearing sweets. They were the ideal neighbours, quiet and kind and brought sweets to me every holiday. When they noticed my apartment was almost as barren as when I first arrived, they gave me a painting and a wind chime for my birthday. I thanked them profusely, before closing the door and crying silent tears. Their kindness overwhelmed me.

I was often happy to hole myself for weeks at a time, just churning out pieces of writing until I was starving and in desperate need of groceries. Today was one of the few days where I needed to go out, though it wasn’t solely for food. It was also to silence this strange urge in my blood. It was like my blood was frantically searching for something. I just had to go out, maybe find the thing that was calling for me.

I also was desperately hungry, my empty stomach growling at me as I tried to pull on clothing as they stuck to my shower damp skin. When I saw myself in the mirror, I bitterly noted that starving myself out of inattentiveness had done nothing to lessen my stomach or thighs. I sighed, dejected, and pulled on the rest of my clothes on and dabbed makeup on to cover the obscene dark circles I had.

I grabbed my purse and shoved my feet into shoes, trying to figure out what route I’d take. ‘Maybe cutting through the cemetery is a good idea,’ I thought to myself as I walked out of the courtyard. I never understood why people hated cemeteries; I had always found them to be peaceful and quiet.

I wasn’t paying much attention, just enjoying the cool weather as I walked to the cemetery. It was cool in the shade, but in the sun it was hot. Spring in the shade, but summer in the sun. I was enjoying my walk, running my hand along the chain separating the road from the grass when I was dragged out of my pleasant stupor by a squeaky, high giggle from somewhere around me. I whipped my head around, half expecting to see a little ghost girl, but that wasn’t the case. I couldn’t see anyone and I didn’t feel scared either, so I just shrugged it off and continued my walk.

Again, I was startled by the same laughter. This time it was longer, and I could tell it was coming from the grassy, sunny side of the fence. My curiosity got the better of me and I ducked under the chain and began to walk in the direction the laughter was coming from, silently apologising for stepping on people’s graves. It made my stomach feel wrong, stepping on their graves, but there wasn’t a path to follow. I simply had to follow the laughter. I just kept going left until I heard it again, and I adjusted my path. As I walked, I heard a boy’s voice. It wasn’t very deep, but it was pleasant.

I was following the voice now, not the giggling laughter. It was easy to follow, and I walked into a small clearing with one small headstone and a guy. The air smelt like fresh grass and grapes. This was the person speaking, I could tell now that I was hearing his voice. He was cute, with a pleasant smile, and warm brown hair. He was speaking animatedly to the air before he burst into laughter; it was the same squeaky laughter I had heard earlier. I had to stop myself from laughing as well. It was such a ridiculous noise to come from him, considering he looked like he was around 19 or 20.

His face fell a little as he stopped and leaned towards the air, nodded slightly, and then looked directly at me. I jumped a little but waved sheepishly, a little embarrassed that I had been caught staring. He jumped up and walked over to me, waving a little himself. He was cute, I had to admit, and I didn’t want to seem like a freak, in front of him.

“Hey, are you okay? Are you lost,” he said, and my gaze dropped to my shoes. He stood and waited for a second before he repeated himself. I looked up at him a little and shook my head. “Are you looking for a grave? I could help you.”

“No, it’s fine. I just...I thought you were a ghost,” I said quietly as I felt the heat rise on my cheeks. Instead of judgemental silence, I was met with high pitched laughter.

“Why?”

“There usually aren’t people here, and your laugh startled me and when I heard it again, I really was convinced it was a ghost and my curiosity got the best of myself,” I said all in one breath. He chuckled and set a hand on my shoulder. I straightened up a little more and saw that he wasn’t trying to comfort me. He was almost bent over as he silently laughed. When he stood up, he wiped a tear away from his eye and chuckled again.

“Man, Jaemin is gonna get a kick out of that,” he said between pants. I chuckled a little bit too. The idea of it seemed ridiculous now.

“It’s a little silly now that I say it out loud.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a big smile. I smiled back and finally took a closer look at his face. It was nice, and he had nice eyes to match. When we made eye contact, I felt strange...and I had no idea why. “Do you want to join me? I was having a picnic.” I smiled a little and looked back at the place he was sitting. Now there was also a lady there, and I could hear her shouting something. She was elderly and wrinkled and grey as a picture in a newspaper.

I didn’t understand where she came from, but it made sense now that he would have been talking to her. She was sitting in the spot he had leaned closer to before he saw me. When it hit me, I felt strangely electric.

“Who is she,” I asked. His face fell and his eyes grew wide with concern as he looked back at his picnic.

“What?”

“A lady is sitting at your picnic,” I said, pointing to the lady.

“You can see her?”

“Yeah...I couldn't see her a second ago, but now I can,” I said quietly before I burst into giddy laughter. This was his magic, wasn't it? He could see ghosts, and the minute I looked into his eyes, I could too. I couldn't believe this. I had thought for years that my magic was no longer alive or confined only to someone I was blood-related to. But this was proof, proof that it was anyone with magic. I just hadn’t met anyone with magic since then.

“What are you laughing about?”

“You can see spirits, right” I exclaimed, putting my hands on his shoulders.

“Y-yes, I can.” I was laughing now and nearly jumping from excitement.

“Do you know what this means?”

“N-no, I don’t!”

“It means I still have my powers,” I said excitedly, nearly crying from this new revelation. It felt like everything was clear again, and like I finally had a chance to be involved with magic again. It felt like the world stopped for a minute, and when I smiled at him he smiled back, though he was a little confused.

The joy quickly faded as I started to notice other people around, people who hadn’t been lingering around before. They definitely hadn’t been there a second ago, and their sudden presence was frightening to me. “Who are all these people?”

He looked at me seriously, but I wasn’t paying attention now. I could hear the other people now, shouting and groaning. Underneath this raucous shouting, I could hear him trying to speak to me. I felt my breath get stuck in my chest, trying to choke anything out. Nothing would come, and he set his hands on my shoulder. He tried to say something but it wasn’t making any sense to me.

I looked at all the people, feeling the panic in my chest start to work its way up my throat. I heard a loud groan and turned to my left, coming face to face with a tall and grey old man. His jaw was hanging and his guts slopped around as he walked towards me. I took a step back, jerking free from the boy’s hands and away from the man, but a grey lady with a big blossoming red stain on her dress was behind me. I felt cornered and I began to cry as I sank to my haunches, slapping my hands over my ears and shutting my eyes between sobs.

I heard the boy shout something and the groans quieted. It was nearly silent when I felt a hand on my shoulder again. I took a few deep breaths and wiped my eyes before I looked up to see the boy looking at me again, this time with concern and confusion.

“Is this the first time you’ve seen them?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just got overwhelmed with all of them around...especially that guy with his guts out,” I said, shuddering at the thought.

He looked at me then his picnic where the lady nodded a little, then back at me before nodding to himself. “Please come sit with us and let us talk to you. We can help you.”

“Okay, I have a little time,” I said, taking a couple of deep breaths as I walked towards the grave where we sat on the blanket and ate grapes and talked.

“Can you explain what you meant by ‘you still had your power’,” he said gingerly, looking at me carefully. “I don’t mean to pry I’m just really curious.”

“I had magic for a long time, but once my mother was gone, I couldn’t do magic anymore. My family shunned me because I had suddenly just reverted to a regular, non-magic person. After that, I started to live with my uncle. It took me a while to figure out my magic and why it disappeared, but I figured out that if I make eye contact with someone who has magic powers, I can do their magic. Almost like a mirror. Whatever they can do, I can do too. I’ve been trying to make eye contact with another magic person for years, but it’s never worked. Until now.”

“So once you looked into my eyes, you could see spirits?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“That’s so cool, I wish I could do that.”

“Well, it kinda backfired on me,” I said quietly. He grimaced, turning his face away from me sheepishly.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. The spirits here can get a little over-zealous.”

“Don’t worry about it, I just don’t understand how mediumship works. It overwhelmed me.” He nodded and we sat in pleasant silence, enjoying the weather and the scent of grass and flowers before I decided that I needed to leave and go get groceries. I was honestly a little reluctant to go as his presence was calming, like warm tea for a sore throat. Had I always been this tense? 

He said goodbye to me, and I waved as I walked away, a little sad that I’d probably never see him again. I was out of the clearing when I heard someone shout ‘Wait!’ and I jumped a little. I turned around and saw the boy running towards me. I paused and let him run towards me, allowing him to come to halt a couple of feet in front of me.

“I never got your name,” he said between pants. “Mine is Chenle.”

“Oh! My name is (Y/N).”

“Awesome, I hope to see you again!”

“Likewise,” I said, smiling a little. I felt a little better now, like knowing his name was a sign that I’d see him again. I hoped so.

As I walked out of the cemetery, I decided I didn’t want to go home yet. Being alone with the things I just saw didn’t sound ideal, even though I knew without him, I wouldn’t be able to see them. ‘I’ll go hang out at the city centre for a little, that’ll help,’ I thought as I walked towards downtown, enjoying the long walk in the shade of big grey buildings. When I got there, I grabbed myself an ice cream and walked a little, taking in the scent of people and fried dough as I wandered.

A crowd was gathering around something on the sidewalk and the strange feeling in my skin came back. I just had to go see what was happening so I walked over and elbowed my way through the crowd until I basically was standing in front of him. I saw the boy, sitting down on a crate with a box in front of him. He was playing a card game, which every person who tried, failed. Something about him was unsettling, and I could smell the magic he radiated. I’d never encountered someone with such raw power that they smelt like it. It made my blood buzz with excitement. Another person with magic in the same day? It felt crazy. I had suddenly been plunged back into the world of magic I had secretly missed for so long. As the person in front of him lost, the crowd shouted and moved, pushing me further back as a man with a smug smile sat down in front of him. I had to stay and watch this.

I don’t know what possessed me to do this, even now. It was like a magnetic pull as I pushed to the front of the group and sat down before the next man could shove his way to the boy. I hit the makeshift seat hard and ducted, narrowly missing the elbow the large man purposely threw towards me. I shook my head, wishing I had the magic to hex him. The boy, looking slightly annoyed, snapped his fingers. I wondered absentmindedly what kind of bad luck that man would have now.

Now that I sat in front of the boy with a smiling face, I handed him a $20 bill. He gaped a little at the bill that I set on the table, before grinning at me. When our eyes met, I could feel magic singing in my veins. I was almost overwhelmed by the power I felt as I watch him move the folded cards around. He looked up at me as he moved, smiling a little. It was pleasant

I could feel the hum of his magic in my blood, and it gave me shivers. It was a little funny; for someone so skilled at revealing the unseen, he sure was obvious to the world moving around him. I had been watching for a while as he scammed people out of money. As people watch him make the $1 or $5 bills people gave him appear under whichever card they didn’t pick. He was so skilled at this that people were pushing to attempt to beat him at his game. They never would though. It was a waste of their time to even think about trying.

He said something, grinning even wider as he realized that I hadn’t been paying attention. I felt the magic sing in his veins as he rubbed his hands together and did a charm. Though I couldn’t be exact, it was some trick that would make the dollar bill appear to be under any card I didn’t pick. I looked into his eyes, though this time it was to take in his face. He was pleasant to look at, with a charming snaggletooth grin and deep golden-brown eyes. I wondered if he used some of his power to make himself look more inviting. I blinked placidly at him, putting my hand to my face before snapping my fingers and pointing to the centre card. He could do this so gracefully, but my attempt at it was clumsy and I knew that. I wasn’t used to having the power he did. He smirked and picked up the card. I was surprised that he didn’t notice that I was also using magic.

Though I didn’t have a goal in mind, the look on his face was priceless and I wondered if I had done this subconsciously to put him in his place. There, beneath a folded queen card, sat the $20 I had given him. A Cheshire cat grin spread across my face, as I leaned forward to speak to him. I could smell the power he held in his skin, deep and intoxicating and a little terrifying. “Keep the $20,” I said before leaning back and patting his cheek gently. The cheers and jeers of the crowd of people around us pulled me back to my senses. He looked at me with wide eyes, but I smiled almost apologetically. I hadn’t wanted to embarrass him this badly for no reason. 

There hadn’t been any logical reason for me to do it, but I felt like I had to. I only partially understood what his magic was, but it was something that was in every aspect of him. It was like what had happened earlier at the cemetery, which made me ecstatic. I was doing magic, which made me feel like I was myself again. I stood, waved to him a little, and walked off. I felt his eyes on my back as his power faded from my blood. But something about his magic was so unsettling that as it faded, I felt off. Though thankfully, I felt like normal again by the time I had rounded the corner and gotten away from him. I sighed as I sat down on a bench, and breathed. That boy’s magic had sucked all the energy out of me and I desperately need to take a break for a second.

After another few minutes of breathing and resting, I stood again and made my way to my home. When I got back, I ate some day-old macaroni I had, only now noticing how hungry I was. I finished the food and scrubbed the bowl clean. 

I looked up out the window at the street in front of me. I looked at two boys, each with heavy, full backpacks as they waved to people I couldn’t see as they stood on the porch of an old, rented house. One was handsome, maybe a model or an actor. The other was also cute, with a sweeter looking face compared to the other guy. I watched as they spoke to someone in black jeans and a long-sleeve black shirt. The sweet one spoke animatedly to the person, grabbing their hands. I couldn’t help but notice the contrast of his fair hands again the other person’s tan skin. 

I watched for as long as I could before the handsome one looked up, and we saw each other. I could tell he knew I was staring. I couldn’t look away as he touched the sweet one’s shoulder, not even when the sweet one looked at me too. They stared at me until I startled myself and looked away. I had, in my stupor, let the slippery bowl fall out of my hands and the noise startled me. When I looked back up, the door had been shut and they were both gone. 

I shrugged my shoulders a little and finished my work. I turned the TV on and flopped into my bed. I didn’t even make it 15 minutes before I fell asleep. When I awoke, I showered, trying to scrub the remnants of him off my skin. I scrubbed myself until I was pink and tender to the touch, masking the leftover scent of him with a strong jasmine soap. Turning to the mirror, I gave myself a good look in the mirror, my gaze falling onto my own eyes. My mother had once said I had such lively eyes, but they were dark now. They weren’t dark in colour; they were (Y/C) and clear as quartz. But in their emotional depth, they were as black as soot. It felt like the only time I felt alive is when I was staring down someone else. I felt like I didn’t have a reflection; like I was other people’s reflection.

I couldn’t stay in my home for long; the need for someone I didn’t know was singing in my veins. It was late at night but I couldn’t hold myself back. I pulled on clothing and left, ready to wander aimlessly until I felt like I found who I was looking for.


End file.
